1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an authentication system including an information processing device and a terminal performing data communication through a network, for determining whether or not a user is a registered user and, more specifically, to an authentication system in which the terminal performs an authentication process based on identification information transmitted from the information processing device.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recently, various systems including a plurality of image forming apparatuses and an information processing device performing data communication with the plurality of image forming apparatuses through a network have been proposed.
By way of example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-303061 (hereinafter referred to as “'061 application”) discloses an image forming system, in which an image forming apparatus transmits original job setting information that it used to a server; the server stores the received original job setting information and a piece of job setting information as a result of data processing of the original job setting information, and transmits the piece of job setting information to the image forming apparatus in response to a request from the image forming apparatus; and the image forming apparatus performs a prescribed image forming process based on the received piece of job setting information. According to the technique disclosed in '061 application, data processing and the process of storing the original job setting information and the piece of job setting information are performed by the server, so that the load on the image forming apparatus is alleviated.
In order to prevent improper use of the image forming apparatus by an ill-intended third party, an authentication system has become popular, which system determines whether the user of an image forming apparatus is a registered user, or not a registered user but, for example, a third party who may abuse the apparatus. Such an authentication system has an information reading device connected to the image forming apparatus, for reading identification information for identifying a user. As the information reading device, an IC (Integrated Circuit) card reader capable of reading user account information as the identification information from an IC card is often used. The image forming apparatus performs the authentication process based on the user account information read by the IC card reader and the user account information of registered users stored in advance, and performs the prescribed process based on the result.
In the authentication system, in order to alleviate the load on image forming apparatus, it may be possible to apply the technique of '061 application. Specifically, the image forming apparatus transmits the user account information read by the IC card reader to the information processing device; the information processing device performs the authentication process based on the received user account information and the user account information of registered users stored in advance, and transmits the result of authentication process to the image forming apparatus. In such an authentication system, if a communication trouble occurs, for example, due to excessive access to the information processing device and data communication between the image forming apparatus and the information processing device should fail, authentication process becomes impossible, and even a registered user will not be able to use the image forming apparatus.
If the authentication process is to be done by the image forming apparatus, it is necessary for the user to have the user account information of the registered users stored in advance in every image forming apparatus, which involves a time-consuming, troublesome work of the user.